Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

China will continue an expansion policy with postgraduate enrollment in 2005, planning to recruit 34,000 more students, or nearly 10 percent more than this year.
Vice Education Minister Wu Qidi was speaking yesterday at the ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Institute of Technology graduate school.
China plans to enroll a total 360,000 postgraduate students in 2005, 307,000 for master's programs and 53,000 for doctorial programs, Wu noted.
The plan for master's degrees represents an increase of 15 percent over this year, while that for doctoral degrees remains the same.
In 2004, it has enrolled 273,117 students for master's degree programs, up 25 percent from 2003, and 53,096 for doctorial programs.
Intending to improve education services and broaden the access to higher education, China has adopted an expansion policy for higher education since 1999, and enlarged postgraduate enrollment by an average 27 percent each year.
Despite that, the country's master degree education remains limited compared with some developed Western countries, education experts point out.
In China, the ratio between doctoral and master candidates is around 5:1, while in the United State, the figure is 10:1.